It Was Always Her
by Dr. Breifs Cat
Summary: 100 themes at 100 words covering 48 years of Tony and Pepper. COMICS-VERSE, COMPLETE
1. Rich

Disclaimers: For all future chapters, Iron Man is owned by Marvel. The writers whose work the following is based on include: Stan Lee, Mike Grell, Matt Fraction, Denny O'Neill and Warren Ellis, among others. No infringement meant, only tribute.

Notes: All of these stories are 100% comics based.

* * *

He made his first million at age nineteen. Landmines. Maybe he was nineteen. The nineteen and the landmines and the million didn't matter because he was making innovations in miniaturization and that was where his mind was, not ages or money or even the physics of killing.

Sometimes, at his most guilty and self-loathing, he wonders how things would have been different if he'd known her then. If he would have thought about what he was doing. If he would have cared.

(Answer: It would all be exactly the same. He forgets he didn't always care about her opinion.)


	2. Poor

Pepper knows that she and Tony will never really belong together because after the party, this is her night:  
She goes home.  
She takes off her fancy dress. She puts on an old shirt and sweat pants.  
She sits in front of the television and watches the news.

This is a life that is not compatible with Tony Stark. This is not how he lives, he would not understand. She is neither decadent nor exciting. But she will not change who she is, even for him.

Tony pairs his sweat pants with a disgusting bathrobe when he watches the news.


	3. Red

When Pepper first arrived here from the accounting pool, her hair was brown.  She wore it in a bun.  Tony thought she looked like a librarian.  Over time, it started to take on reddish tones.  And then, lighter and lighter and lighter.  Once, she came back from a vacation with blonde hair.  That had only lasted for the day and he was a busy man.  Never got around to asking about it.  (What, did you lose a bet?)

After fifteen years of knowing her, Tony realizes he has no idea what her natural hair color is.  He's hoping for red.


	4. black

He takes his coffee black.

He works in his garage all night often. Now and then, he'll stay inside for a few days. When his mind cannot be bothered to surface from his projects, his body will naturally follow suit. On thankfully rare occasions, very rare, he will stay sequestered for weeks, barricaded inside by his own will. Then, it isn't engineering that keeps him working. He's looking for something anyone else would not find in schematics.

She brings him coffee at odd hours of the night. He asks why she's still here, but he's never satisfied with her answer.


	5. Blue

Because he was Tony Stark and patently unwilling to live with blue balls, he pretended other women were Pepper.  Unhealthy, immature--maybe.  But as long as he remembered in time to call whoever he was with by her own name--more than a few close calls and he eventually had to swear off women whose names started with P all together--it worked out as well as he could possibly hope.

Whenever he started to think he might actually have a good time with this one, she went and reminded him that she had no idea who he really was.


	6. Green

He keeps coming back to green eyes. 

Pepper was far from the first green-eyed woman he'd ever wanted, but she was the first to dig so deeply under his skin.  She was first green-eyed woman to consume him, but she was far from the last.  When he lets himself think about it, he thinks about the color of grass in the spring.  Bright, healthy, vibrant and something that he never properly appreciated because he could not tear himself away from his metal enclosures to just 

Go outside sometime.

Green eyes will never, ever be out of his system.


	7. Grey

The original armor was a grey dingy metal, which Tony was personally rather fond of because it truly looked like man made of iron.  Every step he took was loud and heavy.  Later designs were more heroic, but he liked that foreboding grey.  When he built new armors just for fun, with no intention of using them, he used the grey aesthetic.

Working with metal helped him think, made him relax.  He had begun constructing armor with a defined female shape, designed around the Rand Tech power supply nearly before he even realized he was doing it.  She wasn't grey.


	8. Brown

Sue made some reasonable points, but he had already gone over them all on his own.  With her husband in a coma, any decision regarding his life support was Pepper's choice to make.  As the couple's friend, Tony's only role was to respect her feelings and support her decisions.  

It didn't matter what he thought about euthanasia (against) or how he felt about her request (horror) or what the world without Happy would be like (empty).  He had to support her.  (She's wrong.)  

If she wanted snuff those brown eyes, fine.  But it will not be on Tony's head.  (Coward.)


	9. Gold

Sometimes, he would refer to himself as 'the invincible Iron Man.'  He really did think he was invincible.  He really did know how weak that makes him.  Irony, maybe.

His friends called him 'Shell-head,' which was endearing in an odd way because you wouldn't think being compared to the casting of a bullet would be charming but...  He called himself that, too, but with less self-awareness.

The public was fond of 'Golden Avenger.'  'Shell-Head' is also popular, but the 'Golden Avenger' has more panache and panache can be important.

Joyful and victorious in battle, she shouts, "Tony!" 


	10. White

It was really best for everyone involved that he never saw her in the dress.  True, they had eloped, so for all Tony knew, Pepper had not been a traditional bride.  And okay, he was a little offended that they told him about their marriage after they'd already done it, without bothering to invite him to the wedding.  He had tried to be distant with them--didn't want to be in the way--so if they assumed he wouldn't want to be there, it was his own fault.  

He was sure he would have made a jackass of himself anyway.


	11. Morning

When Pepper wakes up in Russia (it is with a definite sense of disbelief because she is not someone who flies around the world),  
alone in a strange bed (naked, which is odd because she distinctly remembers this _suit of armor_ she was wearing),  
she has absolutely no idea what time of day it is (she's becoming more like Tony than she thought, the man cannot keep track of _time_),  
so she calls out for him (he answers, but she has to drag herself out of bed, wrapped in a sheet--naked, really? Tony, you lech--and go find him.)


	12. Dusk

For the first time in what could be years, they talk until sunset.  It is abnormal. 

Firstly, Pepper entered this conversation wearing nothing but a sheet and while she has spent an average portion of her life in various states of undress, this is the first time she has been quite so naked in front of Tony Stark.

Second, Tony sounds contrite and empathetic, both of which are very unTonylike ways to sound.  She thought she would enjoy the novelty, but the reality is terrifying.

Third, she keeps interrupting the conversation by indulging in the sudden need to kiss him.


	13. High

It is completely, completely amazing to see himself reflected in someone else like this.  They walk, hand in hand, and its all coming out of her in a great rush.  HAMMER storming Stark Industries, herself finding the suit of armor he left for her, the things she did, the things she saw, her capture and release, making the choice to come after him.  He can't remember the last time he ever understood someone else like this.  He asks her how she likes flying.

The way Pepper answers, "_I love it,_" lets Tony know she is just as addicted as him.


	14. Low

Especially in the beginning, it had been painful to loose Happy and Pepper.  They were often running off to the next new place, trying to find something that belonged only to them.  They kept in touch a little bit, Happy more than Pepper.  Happy used to call.  Happy used to apologize for Pepper, because it was an ugly side of her that would abandon her friend.  She was afraid of what Iron Man could mean for their lives.  And even though it hurt, it meant that neither of them ever saw him at his worst.  Tony was grateful for that.  


	15. Strong

It is not that she thought of herself as "weak," so much as she never thought of herself as being this strong. In her mind, there has always been a clear distinction between the things she is and the things she is not.

She was not a hero. She was a friend.  
She was not a savior. She someone to talk to when the weight of the world became too heavy.  
She was not superhuman. Henry was too kind when he acted like Hera was the equal of Anthem.

She is Rescue and the distinctions are not so clear anymore.


	16. Weak

It is not that she thought of herself as "strong," so much as she never thought of herself as being this weak. In her mind, there has always been a clear distinction between the things she is and the things she is not.

She was not a victim. Though Iron Man has rescued her a few times. A few.  
She did not bow to the powerful. She takes a stand for what she believes in.  
She was alive because of the technology in her chest. It was her choice.

She will fly as high and as fast as she can.


	17. Rough

Erasing his mind had some unintended consequences.    He was erasing the database.  His genius.  His memories.  Layers of emotional armor.  How to pilot the Iron Man.  His life.

He had also lost his polish and his charm.  The things that he had practiced and the things that he made a conscious point of doing were gone.  

His movements were a little clumsy, like he barely knew how his own body worked.  His hands pressed too hard and gripped too tight.  

He mumbles, "I'm sorry.  I'm not myself."  To her credit, Pepper doesn't cry.  She pulls him down and holds him.  


	18. Smooth

Pepper missed the mustache.  She could count the number of times on one hand that she had seen him without it.  The mustache was nearly as big a part of him as the Iron Man.  When she pulled that strange helmet off, beneath her was Tony Stark.  Not the Tony Stark she was used to, but dammit, he was good enough.  He was alive.

When the recognition finally shown in his eyes, Pepper could not have imagined ever asking for anything more than his precious, precious life.

Then he kissed her and hmm...she missed the prickle of his mustache.


	19. Soft

Fact: Against all odds, Pepper Potts-Hogan was not the person in the world who knew Tony Stark better than anyone else.

Fact: She was utterly convinced that she was.  Given the chance to explain him to the ignorant masses (re: stupid girlfriends who were too selfish to be the paramour of a superhero), the thing to know about Tony was that everything he did was done out of caring.  No hearts of steel here, just a big softie.     

Fact: Knowing if he is desperately and quasi-secretly in love with a married woman is imperative to understanding any man.


	20. Skin

Things Tony Stark is currently not thinking about include:  
1) The way it feels to hold Pepper's hand. He is fairly certain that this is the first time they have ever touched skin to skin, rather than a hand on a clothed shoulder or such.  
2) He is holding her hand as he drags her to the hospital to visit the man that she probably maybe possibly loves.  
3) There is a pretty good chance he's lost any shot with her.  
4) Then again, she might be trying to make him jealous.

Things Tony Stark is currently thinking about include:  
1) All of the above.


	21. Hands

He's wearing some bulky, unfamiliar armor.  She didn't expect that. 

He forgot about the armor that he built for her.  She is just a teensy bit offended.

He nearly killed her.  She is actually pissed off about that.

He is apologizing a lot.  She wants him to stop because it scares her.

He apparently has some interest in mysterious meteorites.  She doesn't know why she's surprised. 

He doesn't seem to care that she has been wearing her armor for hours.  She's fairly disgusted, herself.

He takes her face in his hands and kisses her for all he's worth.  She smiles.


	22. Glance

For some reason, they all seem to think everyone else is blind.

Tony studies Pepper with all the ardor of a man whose every fantasy and breath hinges on that single woman.  He thinks he hides it well.  Pepper watches him with a muted, frustrated longing, wanting to cross the barriers between them, but not daring.  She knows its obvious she's unhappy, but figures no one can tell why.  Rumiko glares.  No one seems to be paying attention.  Happy mopes.  He isn't sure they even remember he's there.

For some reason, they all think no one else can see them.  


	23. Touch

For the most part, Tony doesn't allow himself to touch her because he fears he wouldn't be able to let go.  His self-control isn't what he wants it be, so sometimes he just can't help cuddling with her in the back of the limo.  Other times, he wonders why he should even bother holding back.  She was an adult, she could decide for herself if she wanted him.  She was fairly vocal on the subject that, yes, she did indeed wish to be with him. This nobility of his wasn't doing any favors.

Damn heart.  Just kill him already.  


	24. Kiss

Pepper charms him, calling him warm and dependable.  She lays her hand on his chest.   It is the sort of touch that makes him yearn for more.  Her posture tells him everything he needs to know about what she intends, but she maintains something so innocent and vulnerable in her expression.  She needs him.  Her arms wind around him.  Her grip on his back is fierce and undeniably sexy.  He holds her against his body.  It is almost the most perfect kiss Tony could have dreamed of.

Except for the part where her husband walked in.

Yeah, that part sucked. 


	25. Hot

At first, she thought that Mr. Stark didn't like her because she wasn't pretty enough, so Pepper changed the way she wore her make-up and did her hair.  He told her that he thought she looked fantastic, but he still didn't make a move, so she was eventually forced to rule that one out.  She kept on with the new style.  Looking more glamorous did wonders for her self-confidence and she wasn't keen on giving that up.  She wasn't being fair to him, assuming that only beauty could capture his attention. 

Oh, but he was such a hottie.  


	26. Cold

Tony had always thought that for Pepper to stop being in love with him would be the best thing that could happen to the both of them.  If she didn't want him, that eliminated his inner struggle to keep himself away from the woman he wanted to marry.  If she didn't want him, he wouldn't be hurting her anymore.  She could move on with her life and he could, well, not move on...  He'd die with fewer regrets when his bum heart finally did him in.

He had not realized how badly it would hurt when he lost her affection.    


	27. Warm

Pepper Potts is warmth incarnate, her sweet hug and words of concern envelope him.  The return of her esteem is joyous and Tony holds her, presses his forehead to hers and says what he can to calm her fears.  He can't keep his own affection out of his words, not after earning hers back.  The endearments tumble out of him.  He is sure she can hear the fondness in his voice.  He has absolutely no idea what has brought on this sudden change of fortune, but her love is far, far too dear to him to take for granted again. 


	28. Dry

Even though he absolutely knew that he completely, completely deserved it, throwing champagne in the face of a dry drunk was a spectacularly low blow. Every single bit of willpower in his body was devoted to doing one of two things:

1) _Do not lick your lips. I know you want to. Don't. Yes, it would be easy to open your mouth and lick off whatever your tongue can reach. Don't. For the love of God, don't start yourself down that path again. Even though its just a little tiny bit, practically nothing at all. Don't. Do not. _

2) _Go after her. _


	29. Food

Pepper had big expectations for this date: dinner, dancing and all the other swanky accoutrements Tony provided for the other women he had taken out.  What she actually got was a visit to an amusement park and an ice cream cone.  Even a broke pre-teen who still though roller coasters were more fun than the opposite sex probably would have bothered to stay out longer than Tony had.  He ran off, citing business complaints that his secretary knew were lies.

She never knew where he wanted to take her the next night, or how fragile his confidence really was.


	30. Drink

They were joking in the elevator about his stupid come-on lines and he thought that maybe she was actually interested.  When she told him she'd keep her eye out for someone smart, hot and available, he thought maybe, just maybe, she was referring to herself.  There was also that whole thong-and-spelling incident to consider.  Women don't spell the names of exotic cars while flashing their panties at a man unless they're interested.    

He was being stupid and hopeful again.  Tony brushed Pepper's hair behind her shoulders and told her to fetch more champagne for his new playmates.


	31. Joke

They both laughed.  That's what made it okay.  They both laughed.  If it had been just her, undoing the damage dealt by her advance would have been impossible.  If it had been just him, she would have been humiliated.  He couldn't take being alone anymore.  She couldn't stand being superfluous for another moment.  Both problems shared one answer.       

It wasn't the grand romantic gesture she thought it would be.

It wasn't the balm on his soul that he had been searching for.

It was hilarious.

As it turns out, a friend to laugh with was exactly what they both needed.


	32. Tease

Kitty.

Pretty girl.

My dear, my darling.  Doll.

Mr. Stark had an entire lexicon of pet names for his poor secretary.  He was often all hugs, hands and endearments.  Endearments, most often.  As much as Pepper wanted to believe that the words that tumbled from his mouth meant something, he made no attempt to actively pursue her.  He was hard to read, hard to pin down.  The depth or sincerity of his affection was unfathomable.  Pepper spent many long hours trying to determine what she was to her enigmatic boss.  Every time she thought she had an answer, he'd change.


	33. Life

Life was a commodity that they could pass back and forth between them as easy as any pen.  He needed a replusor tech rig to power his bodily functions, she just happened to have one on hand.  On heart.  Which she only had because he gave it to her in the first place, a medical prosthetic that saved her life.  He had saved her from countless villainous personages over the years.  She had saved him from dead batteries and faulty machinery.  And maybe one or two villains.  That death always followed him was getting progressively less scary.  They offered life.


	34. Death

Tony knew he loved Pepper because when he thought he was going to die, she was what he thought of.  Sometimes it was regret--he should have been better to her and now he would never get the chance.  Sometimes it was sorrow--he had hurt her and could never make it up to her.  Sometimes it was to soothe himself--her name removed some pain.

Tony knew he was over her because when someone threatened the woman Iron Man loved, his first thought was Pepper would be safe.

Tony and his mortality would be discussing the matter further, later.


	35. Honor

As hard as it might be to believe, Tony Stark does have some honor.  There aren't a lot of lines he won't cross if pushed hard enough, but there are some.  There are many, many lines he will cross with little to no pushing at all.  He tries to be better, but habits are hard to break and personal growth is an on-going journey.

When the husband of the woman he wants is a selfish, drunk jackass, he's still her husband.  When a husband suggests that Tony could screw his wife, he has enough honor to be fucking offended.


	36. Love

He has memories from a distant dreamland--that he understands is an alternate reality created by the omnipotent son of a friend of his and damn if that isn't hard to take--where he actually managed to confess his love to her.  Okay, it was more like she was making fun of him and asked if he loved her, but he said yes and that's the important thing.  As time passes, the more his memories of this lifetime grow muddled.  Maybe in a few years, it will be as though this world never existed at all.

He doesn't want that.


	37. Spice

Tony has never spent much time thinking about the contradiction of Pepper Potts.  She is a red-head named for spice, yet she doesn't give off the heat that one might assume from such a description.  She is more warmth than hotness, a nurturing personality.  Someone who needs to be needed, above all else.  When he tells her what he is missing--in the office, in his life, she hurries to fill the gap. 

She's in a red dress now.  It starts at her breasts, trails to the ground and is sex spun into cloth.

On second thought, she burns.  


	38. Sweet

Actually, she's kind of a bitch.

It used to annoy him and it has made her fairly unpopular around the office, but bizarrely, he finds himself looking forward to her catty comments, barely veiled insults and blalant lies.  

He actually kind of respects her for it.  She doesn't fear retribution, she makes it impossible to get any crap past her and she certainly isn't lacking in wit.  It'd be nice if she showed some self-preservation instincts when dealing with super villains, but if she cowered at the sight of an idiot in a stupid costume, she wouldn't be Pepper.    


	39. Sharp

Pepper Potts is an idiot.  

One thought that has been going through her mind more than any other lately is 'This must be how Tony feels all the time.'  Heightened intelligence.  Suit of armor.  Aid strangers, protect friends, rescue colleagues.  Magnet imbedded in chest.  Shrapnel in body.

Now she's lost it all and she can't believe that she never considered what could be taken from her.  Mind slowed.  Pile of scrap.  Useless.   

Why did she never think she might be the one to loose everything?

Why did she never think he might slip through her fingers?

He just lies there.


	40. Water

He stands on the roof of the world because he can't be standing in a hospital room.

He might be on the verge of doing something he doesn't believe in because he can't have faith right now.

He lies because he can't think about truth, and no one knows he knows anyway, so he can get away with it.

He sends a proxy to do the things he should be doing because it is actually not his place.

He isn't sad or scared anymore because he's gone completely numb.  Maybe it's the cold?

Icicles on his face.  The armor cries.


	41. Fire

Looking back, it's really shocking she never figured out where the fire was.  Tony was always running off mysteriously, nearly as often as his 'bodyguard' hung around mysteriously.  So focused, she'd been, on trying to figure out why Tony would keep someone around who hid his name and face, that'd she'd never entertained the idea that it was Tony.  What sort of bodyguard is never seen with his charge?  She tries to find excuses that are adequate enough to let her forgive herself, but she prides herself on knowing the man.  It was embarrassing.  He wasn't even a good liar.


	42. Flight

Pepper used to think that she didn't like to fly--in the superhero sense, not the airplane sense--but the truth was she just didn't like to be carried.  Being carried by a hero always meant that you were fleeing helplessly from some peril from which he is adequately protected and you are not.  You are dead weight, a hassle to be overcome.  The superhero carry is an interesting phenomena.  You can always gauge the closeness of the relationship by how the helpless one is carried.  Bridal.  Armpit hold.  Hands.  Piggyback.

Still.  She'd rather fly under her own power, thanks.


	43. Content

He should be happy to have his darling secretary back, but he knows he can't be.  He could probably snatch her up for himself now, if he really wanted, but he doesn't know what he wants.  It's not his choice, anyway.  Still, she's vulnerable and lonely.  It would be easy.  Happy is his friend, yes, but he walked out on her  That's nearly as good as a blessing, isn't it?  (No, it's really not.)

But he can't be happy to have her back if it's causing her pain.  He can't be content if he's only holding her because she's crying.


	44. Joy

Excitement turns to confusion turns to pure joy until Iron Man realizes exactly what he is facing.  From seemingly no where appears his lost love, Beth, telling him forget everything she'd ever said about why they couldn't be together or why she was leaving him.  It all feels so damn right that before he knows it, his vision is fuzzy and Pepper Potts is standing before him.  

He's Iron Man (not Tony Stark), he's investigating a crime scene, avenging a murder and facing a villain who has the power to make him see who he wants to see.  Pepper.  _Potts._


	45. Sleep

It's late.  (She knows it's late.)

Tony is down in his lab, working on--what?--and she knows that she should go home and go to bed.  He is, mostly likely, not at all aware that she is still on the clock.  She knows she needs to rest, take care of herself because she is caring for two now (finally).  

Pepper knows a lot of things.  She knows she's pregnant with an empty home waiting for her, an unaware husband away on business.  She's still maybe a little bitter about his success.

She just wants to stay here with Tony.  


	46. Fear

He is supposed to hate her.

Pepper is lying still and bloody and he is supposed to hate the bitch that did this to her.  

She shouldn't have been here, home, all alone and unprotected.  She had wanted to stay at the office with him and he'd forced her to leave.  It's his fault this happened.

At the hospital, the doctors are grim.  They've done what they can.  She's a fighter, but...  

There was a baby.

That they couldn't save.

He is supposed to hate her.

It's his fault.

They've--all of them--lost a child.

She can fight, but...


	47. Still

She's not moving.  Her skin is nearly as white as the bandages and she doesn't move.

He doesn't move, either.  Unlike her, he's conscious, seated, flushed.  He can't actually remembering moving, though.  He feels like his been rooted to this spot for his entire life, waiting for her to wake up.  He won't leave her all alone again.  The doctors are apologetic, but none of them have much to say anymore.  They can only wait.  It's all her, now. 

When Happy enters, he looks every bit as sick and distraught as Tony feels.

Tony swiftly lies to him and runs.  


	48. Shock

She is a mother.  It's who she is.  She's nurturing and understanding and has wise eyes that know even the things you don't tell her.  She keeps track of what everyone else forgets and knows what you ate for lunch.  Her only child is an all too easily distracted and excitable 30-something, but he can change that.  He fix this.  He can get what they lost back.

(Hell, yes, he can build a time machine.  Tony Stark: One billion, Universe: Zero.)

He can't quite believe his ears when she tells him to stop.  Give up.  Let go.  It's over. 


	49. Explosion

Confession: Tony likes making things that explode.

He likes it a lot.  He is so wired towards weapons that it is actually more difficult for him to think of ways to make something productive than it is to think of ways to turn the same technology into something destructive.  First thing he did after his superhero war ended was wander into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s weapons development department and take the whole place over, guilt-free.

This should complicate things, but it doesn't.  Destruction is in application.  She who intends no harm will commit no harm, even if the suit is technically deadly.


	50. Light

He doesn't remember any journey through his subconscious mind, but he will thank Dr. Strange just the same.  (Still hates magic, though.)  Then again, he doesn't remember a lot.  He remembers lying on an operating table, reprogramming Extremis to reprogram him the way he wanted.  He remembers being engulfed in a white light that started at his feet and swallowed him whole.  And then there was the Ghost.  The ragtag group of friends.

He's got a light in his chest now.  He understands the process behind the device but Pepper stares at it and he doesn't know what that's about.


	51. Dark

Pepper has undergone surgery while in the employ of Tony Stark more times than she wants to acknowledge. This time is rather different. She is having something removed from her body. It is her choice, not a medical imperative. She's doing it to save a life. She is conscious, aware of what is happening.

The fluid used to knock her out will spread a chill throughout her body, starting where the I.V. is embedded in her arm. She will count backwards from 100. Before she hits 90, she'll black out.

But when she wakes up, Tony will be okay.


	52. Shades

There are a lot of reactions that Pepper could have:

She could be annoyed that Tony is dismissing her concerns.

She could be relieved that when he asked if he was sensing a crush, he made the whole thing about some male lesbian fantasy, instead of embarrassing her.

She could beat him to death with her clipboard because they both know he is asking for it.

He's got his sunglasses on, the ones that say he's too cool to care, too cool to protect himself, and much too good to bother paying attention to someone else's needless little anxieties.

Worry.


	53. Glow

Tony watches Pepper sleep because it is his helicarrier and that means he has the privilege to do such things. He also has some psychological need to remind himself constantly that she's alive, she'd doing great. She's breathing. He saved her.

He really prefers the 'he's in charge, so he's allowed to do this stuff' angle.

It's the one that doesn't make him look like an emotionally fragile stalker, after all.

She sleeps.

His eyes are fixed on her chest, on the glowing battery between her breasts that keeps her going. The constant light probably makes it hard to sleep.


	54. React

No one ever said that Pepper Potts was a mastermind. Case in point, this is her plan.

Step One: Make Tony jealous. This part is hard, because it means she has to pretend to like Happy. Worse yet, she has to pretend that she's interested in horror films.

Step Two: Insult him. This part isn't hard, because she does sort of mean it. She'd wanted romance and she'd gotten a farce of a date.

Step Three: His ego takes over and she gets what she wants.

He does not react the way she wants him to. He winces and leaves.


	55. Super

Pepper hates hearing women talk about Tony, but it is inescapable. He's slept with most of his female friends and he dates their co-workers. There is a policy on the books that says Tony is not allowed to date employees, but he does anyway. His so-called friends like to gossip about how they've all done him, tapped that, been there. His employees whisper to each other about him in the women's restroom, he's intense and the armor scares them.

Until the poor man meets a woman who sees how wonderful he is, Pepper Potts has bitches to choke.


	56. SpiderSense

So, somewhere along the line, Tony figured out how to duplicate superpowers, create superpowers from scratch and nullify all powers, regardless of origin. He used this to put Spider Sense into his armor, create a team of nanobot-enhanced celebrity superheroes--there as got to be a portmanteau of that they can market--and create a device to render all of this inert.

Hera, leader of the Order and bonafied superhuman, registered in the great state of California, sees that her Zeus has quite the fixation on this whole superhero thing. Woven right into the Stark Dataspine, Pepper knows all.


	57. Past

He considers himself a futurist, but it is the past that defines him. It is the past he needs to break free from. He wants to get away from the military-industrial complex, the self-destructive behavior patterns that fueled his every bad decision, the nights were he is lonely for his departed friend, alcohol. He dreams of something better.

Long ago, he and Joanna had dreamt of a home full of children. She said he could never be the husband she wanted, or the father.

The next time he met a woman he could marry, he still believed it.


	58. Present

He doesn't remember most of his childhood anymore. There are bits and pieces...emotions. But most of it is gone. He doesn't remember what his home looks like or the name of his favorite movie or what he did last week. There are a few things that have stayed concrete longer than others. The Iron Man. A scarred woman. They are important, but he suspects they'll be gone soon, too.

Pepper. The pattern of her freckles. The way she tastes. Her voice and her eyes and her hands. How she touches him. All he _knows_ he has is right now.


	59. Future

Given everything that she knows about Tony Stark, Pepper is utterly mortified by the fact that she briefly entertained the notion that they could have something real. That there would ever be a future. Of all the women in the world, she is the one that should have known better. What did she think was going to happen after sleeping with him? That this was somehow going to magically turn into a happily ever after?

There are no happily ever afters when Norman Osborn rules the world. And there sure as hell are no happily ever afters with Tony Stark.


	60. Dream

His first fantasy involved taking her out of the town and it was all very romantic, even though it inevitability ended with a sex scene. (Let's call it "love-making.")

Later, he came up with one where she bathes him and then he takes her before leaving the tub. (This one was helped along by an extremely invasive enemy of his who had a thing for hallucinations.) (Oh, and also? She begs for it.)

There's also the one where the baby is his. The one where she never got married. And he doesn't call her his dream girl for nothing.


	61. Weather

**Weather**

Pepper knows what it means when Tony calls her from the suit. It means something bad, something big, is going down. He doesn't call from the suit to chat. This time, it is to confess to her - though he does not actually recall doing this - that he built a machine to make weather kill people. The weather has always killed people, but he can make it kill who he wants.

She's shocked. Not because weather is deadly. Weather has killed people since the beginning of time. She just...she didn't think Tony was in the business of killing people anymore.


	62. Identity

**Identity**

He's well aware that he's a bit of a jackass, but this time he's taken her sense-of-self away from her, which is probably one of the worst things he's ever done. He understands that this is a struggle for her, losing the suit. He's been there. But he also doesn't want to give it back. He's the idiot that goes running into every conceivable danger out there. He's the one that needs to do this because he can't live with all the things he's done without it. She's not supposed to be like him. She is someone different.


	63. Hero

**Hero**

Pepper can't count the number of times during her rocky marriage that she had to talk Happy down from trying to be a hero. He longed to go out in the armor with Tony, but she was too afraid he'd get himself killed to entertain the notion. In the end, it hadn't made a difference.

When she's given up on herself, it's him she thinks about. He never would have given up on her. He reminds her of all that she's done, all that she can do, how she is everything he never could have been.

And he forgives her.


	64. Mission

**Mission**

Pepper finds the idea of Tony Stark as the Director of SHIELD simultaneously sort of bizarre and hilarious. He's been at odds with SHIELD for a long time. He chafes at rules and loves loopholes. He will never enforce the law with any kind of consistency. And he's definitely not military. Disconnect aside, he does have the history, power and charisma to make it work. It was a rough start, but he's been rising to the challenge beautifully.

(Actually, he's pissed off everyone, but he at least takes the mission clock seriously. Being proud of Tony means picking your battles.)


	65. Change

**Change**

The replusor unit embedded in her chest is changing her.

At first she thought it was turning her into a monster, but it was a battery, not a bomb, so that was okay. But now Tony has taken to upgrading it. It was no longer enough for him to heal her injuries. He needed to fix her eyes and kick her brain into overtime. She feels incredible and inhuman at the same time. She isn't a machine. She shouldn't be able to be upgraded. She doesn't want to want what he does to her.

What is he turning her into?


	66. Constant

**Constant**

Iron Man is the most irresponsible superhero to ever take on the forces of evil. He's selfish. His idea of justice seems to hinge on whatever is the easiest thing to do at the time, get the fastest results or bother the most people. He is absent-minded to an almost comical degree. He's got a big brain in his tin can helmet, but the little brain in his metal shorts does most of the thinking. His addictions include alcohol and anything high maintenance. He's convinced he's right about everything, so he never listens to anyone.

He is her rock.


	67. Male

**Male**

Pepper had always understood office politics, but she never had any use for the power plays. Since returning to work, it all seems more blatant, but it could just be that she's become more sensitive to sexism. Tony has enough Alpha Male characteristics that men typically assume the way to get ahead at Stark is masculinity. Tony isn't charmed by the male posturing, but he's not exactly a feminist ally, either. He's interested talent.

The way to get ahead at Stark Industries is to be the best you are at what you do, and then come do it for him.


	68. Female

**Female**

The suit was clearly a woman upon first glance, but Pepper didn't have a lot of time to think about the implications of that. She was blown away by the reality of a suit waiting for her, but oddly unsurprised that it existed. She was somehow prepared for this moment, mentally and physically. That was the end of doing a lot of thinking about the suit and the start of using the suit.

Later on, once she caught the public eye, she had wished she'd thought more about the implications of the feminine shape.

Such as the very distinct breasts.


	69. Electric

**Electric**

Saving Pepper from the immediate threat of the Titanium Man was as straight forward as shorting out his electrical ray by introducing a live wire. Being Pepper, she seemed to have little interest in staying saved, not when locating Tony Stark (ha!) could mean victory in this battle. His curt tone was born of concern for her safety and if that didn't make it clear enough, his words removed all doubt. Pepper was likely already suspecting what the Titanium Man had figured out. Namely, Iron Man was in love with this girl.

Repairing this situation would not be straight forward.


	70. Friends

**Friends**

Her words about how he had always been a good friend to her, how that's what she needed him to be, come back to her after their disastrous kiss. She almost can't believe her own ears when she dismisses all of the romantic fantasies that she used to carry, but what she needs right now is a friend. She needs him to continue to be her most reliable confidant, a constant source of unsolicited advice and her best friend. If the kiss had gone the way she had imagined it would, they would put a relationship immeasurably important at risk.


	71. Lovers

It's a good memory.

It isn't the physical sensations that she dwells on, though those had been greater than even her guiltiest fantasies. She cherishes her recollection of pieces of himself that he guards so carefully - vulnerability, sorrow, shame. She smiles as she thinks about what he was willing to show her then.

She also sighs wistfully for the aggravating facade he offers the entire world. He strikes a chord in her the same way he does every other woman she's met. But what they had that night was special because of the implicit intimacy of their complete emotional honesty.


	72. Gift

Tony and Pepper had never been any good at giving each other presents.

He was utterly impossible to shop for. Wealthy. Everything that he said wanted was an abstract, a concept. Things that couldn't come gift wrapped. She gave him cheap knick-knacks when she had to give him something. He kept or used everything she gave him, because she was Pepper and he had to.

For her, Tony wanted to give her the perfect life. Good job, good husband, a family. He tried, but her employment was the only thing he could really control.

The suit was something else.


	73. Promise

His instructions did not actually say anything about a new armor. His message from beyond ..where ever it was he went... a coma or the world inside his own head or something... specifically said they could put a new replusor back inside of her later. In order for Tony to live, the good doctor needed to remove Pepper's RT rig and place it inside Tony, where it would began a new life of fueling his.

He never promised her a new suit. He never said that he was okay with her carrying on as Rescue.

And she won't say that.


	74. Years

There was a time when Pepper and Rhodey had shared the dubious pleasure of being the trustees of Tony's estate. While they were in agreement that his faith in them was touching, they would have preferred for him to express this bond in any other way, at any other time. And not when he was dead.

He turned up fine later, of course. He always did.

His return did not surprise Pepper as much as the appointment did. She walked away years ago because of Iron Man. His esteem for her never wavered, even still.

So, this time, she stayed.


	75. Peace

The problem with Tony's thinking is that it is backwards. Intimacy comes first, often with people he can't trust. His heart always ends up broken. He builds bombs so that he can make something good later. But only after he saves the world from his own monsters. He makes war in the name of peace and security. He pockets the profit and loses everything else.

He doesn't understand where he went wrong because a controlled fire is supposed to help the forest grow.

The problem with Tony's thinking is, as a genius, he should be able to learn. He doesn't.


	76. War

Pepper wound up on the pro-registration side of the superhero civil war despite not actually being a superhero for several reasons.

She'd never trusted heroes with secret identities. She found it impossible to trust someone you know is hiding something from you. Even harder is when a friend reveals their caped activities after years of lying.

Happy died for registration. He was targeted for being a friend of a pro-registration superhero and he stood that ground.

It was Tony's cause.

She was not a superhero. She registered anyway. They needed people and she'd always been a quick study.


	77. Found

She catches up with him in Russia and she doesn't know why she's surprised. Not about what country he's in - Tony has been running all over the planet and Russia was a big hunk of Eurasia that Tony was always tangled up in. That part made sense. She's also not surprised by the way he nearly shoots her head off, because superheroes are always nearly killing each other by accident. But don't run away with the idea that she is okay with that.

She doesn't know why she's surprised that he bought the land beneath a mysterious meteorite landing site.


	78. Metal

Rescue comes loaded with a playlist of thousands of songs, all of which JARVIS claims are among Pepper's favorites. She didn't even realize she knew thousands of songs. It's just one playlist, but it is organized by artist, year and genre. Between the organization and the artificially intelligent operating system, listening to exactly what she wants is simple.

Iron Man armors have multiple playlists and satellite radio. Tony is fairly enamored with music and being inside the armor can get claustrophobic without the noise. His preferred volume is roughly earsplitting. At least seventeen of his playlists are 80's metal.


	79. Mettle

Tony understands that he is a weak person. There is a reason that addiction is generally regarded more as a character flaw than a disease. Relying on, needing, prioritizing something so much it destroys your body, life, relationships... People see that, they see a weakness. He sees the weakness, too, his pattern of being unable to exist as just himself. He needs alcohol, women, money, armor to protect him. He finds it too easy to let someone else be strong for him. Without her, he forgets how to survive.

He wakes when he remembers he does not live for himself.


	80. Meddle

Tony's input isn't really welcomed by the Order, which is kind of ridiculous since he put the whole thing together, and as director of SHIELD, is ultimately in charge. The team needs to break away from his shadow if they want to be taken seriously as a force for good. That won't happen if Iron Man, or Iron Man's money, is always there to get them out of a jam. Which is crazy, because he has experience, resources and power they lack. Sometimes, it's life or death.

Live or die, Kate says Pepper needs to stop calling him so much.


	81. Gamble

**Gamble**

Pepper Potts was not a woman who took chances. She was a woman who carefully weighed her options, evaluated every situation from every angle and made choices. Every thing she did was a deliberated upon, and deliberate action. She could have it no other way.

For Pepper taking the chance on Tony was not a gamble. It wasn't even taking a chance, not really. There was only question in her mind regarding her promiscuous employer.

Pepper knew most people would not think of him as reliable, but very few people knew him as she did.

What will it be like?


	82. Work

**Work**

They were a good team, but theirs was not the typical executive and secretary relationship. His bodyguards and chauffeur loitered about her office daily, waiting on him. She was not permitted anywhere near the places he actually worked. Occasionally, he spoke of attending meetings that somehow never made it to her appointment book. Partially because she had no real authority in the matter, partially because the wealthy were typically eccentric, Pepper allowed these things.

Harder to accept were Tony's confessions that not only was he not engaged to a debutante, as he claimed previously, the woman did not even exist.


	83. Home

**Home**

With HAMMER gone, Steve Rogers back and Tony smarter than ever - well, no, that last one is not true. It was a stupid PR spin. Fact was, Tony was as much of a dumbass as he had always been.

But now he was broke. Which meant that she was broke. And it meant the entire fledgling company Stark Resilient lived in the same boarding house. Even in the wake of everything that they had been through, sharing space was a trial.

But - expectations that she would clean up after him aside - Pepper couldn't say coming home to Tony felt wrong.


	84. Relax

**Relax**

The number one reason that it would not have worked out between them-

(she reminded herself of this constantly, because of the guilt)

(honestly, she rather suspected it would work out between them)

(actually, she was positive that it would have worked out, which is why she had such guilt, her husband was a wonderful man who deserved so much more than a wife with adulterous thoughts concerning his best friend)

-was that Tony didn't know how to relax. Not really. He knew how to have a good time, but it wasn't the same. He didn't know how to unwind.


	85. Busy

**Busy**

When you got right down to it, her dedication to her work was Pepper's largest character flaw. She knew this about herself and she _tried_ to change, but it never quite worked, which made it worse. The problem was, she honestly, really and truly, wanted to walk away.

She remembered being young and excited about her job. She was the Velveteen Rabbit. Work made her _real_. Without it, she wasn't a person.

In the years since, her work had damaged her relationships, caused her to sacrifice so much. She was bitter and angry and wondered where her humanity had gone.


	86. Engine Grease

**Engine Grease**

Among the titles Pepper has assigned to herself are: chief paper-pusher, cook and bottle-washer. In short, she is in charge of _everything_. Somewhere inside Tony's genius brain is the ability to run his business with the same finely tuned skill he demonstrates in his other pursuits. He just, for whatever reason, chooses not to. She isn't a psychiatrist, (though she's been known to fill that role) so she doesn't delve too deeply into his choices and motivations. Her job is what it is, and Stark Industries continues to chug along. Perhaps among her titles should be Engine-Greaser.


	87. 180

**180**

It was not the revelation that Tony Stark and Iron Man were one and the same that changed her mind. She didn't stop wanting him because of the lies or misdirections or the simple question of which of these wildly different personalities belonged to the real man.

It was not a sudden realization that Happy was her one true love, either. Pepper was not a romantic. She didn't believe in soul mates.

What changed her mind was that only one of them would take the armor off and go home. As long as she had that concession, she could compromise.


	88. Nurse

**Nurse**

Pepper had expected to see Tony at her bedside when she woke up. It had not really occurred to her at the time that had the operation worked, she would not be the only one in recovery. In retrospect, she blames it on the drugs, but hope is a powerful force. He would have been lying in a hospital bed as well, perhaps expecting her to be the one doting over him.

Instead, she has Maria Hill for a nurse, a future that is unrecognizable - how could Tony fail? - and the man she loves is lying comatose across the hall.


	89. Heal

**Heal**

It isn't until after Tony has lost her, really and irrevocably lost her, that he gained some perspective. His thought had been that a dying man had no business pursuing love. He could not promise anything or build anything with a woman, so it would be wrong and selfish to behave as though he could.

Pepper had a vibrant future ahead of her, and he was happy for her. Really and truly. Unlike his physical heart, his metaphorical heart began to mend once she was out of his grasp.

When it no longer hurt, he realized he had to live.


	90. Wreck

**Wreck**

After so many failures throughout the years to protect the people he loves, Tony is prepared. This time, he pulls her from the wreckage. This time, he has exactly what she needed to survive, ready to go. This time, it is going to be different. This time, it is going to be okay.

He can't quite believe it, because his life doesn't work this way. He has saved the world many times over, but all he brings the people he loves is death. In the end, land mines will always be his legacy.

This time, one precious life is saved.


	91. Sight

**Sight**

He can't believe its happened already. He had anticipated it, of course. The distinct lines of thought and predictions themselves are getting fuzzy as time goes by, but he knew he had to be prepared for Osborn sending armored foes against him. He thought he had more time, thought his path was erratic enough, his movements underground. It was his own damn tech being used against him. He could never be so far gone as to be unable to recognize his own signatures. Meanwhile, he's stuck in this clunky, out-dated Russian contraption.

The enemy pilot takes off her helmet.


	92. Sound

**Sound**

Pepper is the only one left at the office when the alarm goes off. Tony has gone off God only knows where, leaving his own bodyguard in a lurch. The man has an amazing ability to be anywhere but save with the people who need him. She's Iron Man's only hope now. She doesn't know exactly what she can do - just swipe the boss' fastest car and hope that is enough.

He's limp, weak and helpless when she arrives. He clings to her like a child and the best she can do is drag him to the car. It's hopeless.


	93. Lost

**Lost**

Tony didn't entertain the notion that Pepper kissed him for any reason other than her own confusion and sense of loss. Happy left her. She was reeling, hurting, didn't know where to turn. Any immediate feelings he had experienced upon having her body pressed against his, her tongue teasing him, were quickly replaced by guilt, anger at both of them for doing such a stupid thing and the acceptance that it was not motivated by sincere feeling for each other on either of their parts.

Meanwhile, in the conference room, Pepper was poised to leave her marriage for her boss.


	94. Chance

**Chance**

Tony Stark is a man who has used up far more than his allotment of second chances. His habits tended toward the excess. Though he should have died in captivity, he survived to repair his damaged heart half a dozen times over. He's on his third try at a secret identity. He's loved and lost more than his share of good women.

Tony has always done what he thought was best at the time. More often than not, the end results did not justify the struggle.

Still...some moments in the back of a limo come closer than others.


	95. Speed

**Speed**

He realizes too late that Stane is targeting the people he loves. If Beth hadn't been abducted while they were on the phone, there's no telling how long it would have taken him to notice. Tony had cut everyone out of his life when he hit the bottom. Going so long without seeing Beth or Bambi Arbogast wouldn't have registered with him. He wasn't used to seeing them regularly anymore. After climbing out of the gutter, Tony had only purposely reconnected with one person and Rhodey could take whatever Stane threw at him.

Pepper and Happy were on borrowed time.


	96. Motion

**Motion**

Pepper has had her fair share of problems with Tony's romantic partners in the past, but this is the first time they've come to blows. She's a pacifist and being a bimbo isn't a crime, just very annoying. She'd never so much as fantasized about punching one of them.

Taking out Madame Masque wasn't about Tony; it was a superheroine/supervillainess smackdown. It was about protecting the superhuman community from Norman Osborn. It was about defeating a criminal who as walked free for far too long. The woman had tortured Pepper.

And - okay, it was about Tony a little bit.


	97. Protect

**Protect**

Little known fact: Tony would love to be wrong. Sadly, he is one of the smartest human beings alive and he's usually right.

Tony doesn't know if she says it for the sake of the argument or if she really believes it, but apparently, Pepper thinks having a suit of armor will keep her safe. This is a ridiculous position to take. Putting on the suit is a reaction to a situation already in progress, not a precaution. It can only protect the wearer if they have the foresight to put it on beforehand.

Pepper never sees Lady Bullseye coming.


	98. Pretend

**Pretend**

He can't cry in front of her.

The tears are already welling up fast and the fact that he's wearing a mask doesn't make that much of a difference. They are trapped underground. Superheroes do not cry. It doesn't matter that he's scared, panicking and feeling sick from the hopelessness. He's a hero, dammit. He's got to save her. She can't know even for a second that he doesn't think he can. She can't know that he's afraid for her, that this miserable situation is his fault.

When they get out of this, he'll go straight home and cry alone.


	99. Believe

**Believe**

As the years passed, her conflicted emotions over Tony only grew. Became more convoluted. She loved him, she hated him, she was suspicious one day and protective the next. Whatever he chose to do, he could do it without her and yet she was needed. To many people, she was a role. To him, she was a person. He rarely questioned her, never doubted her and always supported her.

Considering he was going to get her killed once of these days, it seemed only fair. (He even supported such statements as that!)

And even though she wavered, he never did.


	100. Stark

**Stark**

Tony Stark's firstborn son came into the world when the father was thirty-five, and had long given up on the idea of building a family. The concept of legacy - always both frightfully important and just plain frightening - took on a completely different dimension once Howard Anthony was part of Tony's life. He used to fear what he would be leaving behind. Now, he was afraid for his child. Afraid and excited and proud.

When Howard was nineteen, he'd already been showing no small number of his father's proclivities. Got into a spot of trouble.

And he named her Virginia.

* * *

THE END!

Thanks for sticking with me for 100 words, 100 times!


End file.
